


Girl, Put Your Records On.

by Lady_Jae (misskorya)



Series: Batgirl Begins [2]
Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gotham AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-17
Updated: 2015-09-17
Packaged: 2018-04-21 05:13:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4816316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misskorya/pseuds/Lady_Jae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Barbara Gordon struggles to clean up the house that once belonged to her godmother, Renee Montoya. A visit from Victor Sage brings more questions than answers as the young woman does her best to put on a brave face for the world. /Gotham AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	Girl, Put Your Records On.

**Author's Note:**

> Corinne Bailey Rae's Put Your Records On inspired this title, and yes Sara and Laurel Lance from Arrow are here - but they're not quite the same people from the show. In this alternate world the two verses are one, kind of. You'll see later on what I'm talking about.

_“You’re gonna be late, and your Mom is gonna kill me.” Renee stated as she called out to her goddaughter. “C'mere let me fix it so we can go.”_

Barbara looked down at the picture of her and Renee at her graduation, and then her eyes flooded to the one picture of them together after that Softball game. She was covered in red dirt and Renee was there holding the game winning ball. The photographer of the moment aka Barbara’s Mom had demanded that they stand still for at least one second.

Sighing she got up from the bed and went over to the old record player and set it to play Corinne Bailey Rae’s Put Your Records On, she moved her shoulders and remembered that it took her Dad’s two left feet, her Mom’s swagger and Renee’s dance lessons to work up the courage to go to homecoming junior year. 

A knock came to the door, and Barbara was quick to answer it. “Sara, hey.”

“Hey Barbie.” She said to the older girl, who was busy packing up Renee’s things. “Need a hand?”

“Sure.” Barbara remarked as she let Sara in.

And the moment Sara walked in she could still smell the faint aroma of the last Dominican dish that Renee had made. “It’s so surreal.” Sara remarked as she headed straight toward the kitchen. “I was still half expecting there’d be coffee, Renee telling me that instant coffee was just a sin and that I had better not bring my latte crap into her house again.”

There was half a smile on Sara’s lips and Barbara stood beside her carefully making a new batch of coffee. “You don’t have to, Barbie.”

“No it’s okay, I could use a cup.” She said in a soft whisper, and Sara could see the tear stains.

“Oh Barbie.” Sara just pulled her friend into a hug. “I’m so sorry.”

Barbara just shook her head. “No. I’m done with being sad, now I’m just pissed that she didn’t say anything.”

The redhead opened the fridge and of course it was full, it was always full. Full of science experiments because Renee always forgot that she actually bought food. “I deserved to know, her Mom deserved to know, hell Sawyer deserved to know at least.” She said of Renee’s last lover. 

“You know Renee, she’s a fighter. She wasn’t about to have everyone stop what they were doing just to help her out.” Sara added as she put her coat over one of the dining room chairs. “So, Dinah told me that you found a box, anything interesting in it?”

“Nope, just junk.” Barbara was quick to dismiss the gold mind of information she found.

Sara’s lips were pushed to the side as she frowned. “Junk? Okay, nothing Renee ever had was ever junk… at least not to you.”

“Yeah, well it was junk, okay?” Barbara turned toward Sara and looked at her from the tip of her glasses.

Throwing her hands up in surrender. “Fine, it was junk. So, what are you gonna do with all her stuff?”

“I-” Barbara was about to say when the door knocked again. The hell? She thought, and marched toward the door and looked through the peep hole. Crap. Victor Sage, Renee’s little protege, the guy she’d been training/working with. Opening the door she flashed a quick smile toward Victor. To say they didn’t like each other was the understatement of the century.

_“The hell are you two doing?!” Renee shouted as she shoved Barbara and Victor apart._

_“SHE/HE STARTED IT!” They both pointed the finger toward each other and Renee rolled her eyes._

_“I don’t give a damn who started it, I’m finishing this. Barbara you have homework, and Victor I didn’t hire you to harass my goddaughter.” Renee barked. “Now move, both of you!”_

“Victor Sage, what an unpleasant surprise.” She remarked once the door was opened to him.

Victor only gave her a sideways grin. “I aim to please.” He took off his fedora and gave a bow, mockingly so as he stood back up he peered over Barbara’s shoulder. “So, there were a few things that I’ve been instructed to pick up.”

“Instructed? By who?” Barbara asked as she folded her arms across her chest.

“By Renee.” Victor said plainly. “Listen, I know we’re not best friends, but for this one time can we please not throw a punch?”

Barbara chewed the inside of her lips and then sighed. “Fine, but you have ten minutes to find what you’re looking for. Otherwise you’re shit of luck.”

“Ever so gracious.” Victor quipped as he stepped into the house and here he remembered the moment Renee plucked his sorry ass off the streets of Gotham. She gave him purpose, she taught him to do more with his life than to let it waste away in a bottle. She was his sponsor and now here he was in her house, collecting files from cold cases she had never once spoken to him about but they were cases that needed to be solved.

“Her office was down the hall and to the left.” Barbara told him. “Take what you need, files only, pictures, or any other mementos are mine.”

Wordlessly he headed toward the office his eyes catching only a glimpse of the ajar bedroom door and the box of files that laid atop. He sighed and just went into the office, doing his best to decline his need to investigate it.

Barbara was in the kitchen busy making some scaled down rendition of los tres glopes. The aromatic smells made their way toward the office, and Victor heard his stomach rumble, but he wasn’t there for breakfast and he certainly wasn’t there to make friends with a stubborn redhead, nope.

Sara assisted Barbara and cleared her throat. “So. You two ever just kiss and make up?” She said carefully while tip toeing around Babs.

“You do realize I’m holding a knife right?” The redhead asked as she chopped up a few key ingredients. 

“Hey, I’m just saying you two have been doing this I hate you thing, packed with so much sexual tension, you’d make porn stars explode.” Sara then scooped up a forkful of mangu.

Barbara narrowed her gaze but then returned her focus to the food she was attempting to prepare, granted she didn’t have the same finesse as her godmother, but the food would hopefully taste the same. She didn’t have a recipe to follow just memories of watching Renee prepare this every other Sunday. Renee was her pillar when there wasn’t one because her Mother, God rest her soul was so indecisive sometimes and didn’t always make the best choices. Jimmy usually stuck around Dad, but from the moment Barbara was born, Renee had been there.

The young woman’s eye caught on a particular photo on the wall just above the stove. She side stepped, leaning over the stove to pluck it off the wall as Sara took over the cooking duties.

It was a younger Renee, holding an infant in her arms and smiling. Walking toward the living room she took a seat. Her mind played its cruel tricks as she could hear Renee’s raspy singing voice singing Spanish lullaby’s. And then her eyes lifted from the picture frame to that cherry wood rocking chair in the corner. 

Victor suddenly realized that he might just get caught; because he could see Barbara on the couch, and he was in the back bedroom. Renee’s room, with those files that he couldn’t stand to leave unattended. 

Barbara set the picture down and then she looked his way, and Victor just stood there like an idiot. “Let me explain.” He stammered to say but it was too late, the file was being yanked out of his hand and she was yelling.

“You had ten minutes to grab what you could from her office, I didn’t say you could come into her bedroom!” Barbara shouted. “You have no right.” She took any other files he might have had and tossed them on the bed.

“I have every right. There are cases that need to be solved and you-" he protested.

"No. No you don’t need access to these files, and hand over your phone. I know you took pictures.” She demanded holding her hand out.

Victor groaned and put the phone in Barbara’s hand. “And the other phone, and your USB drive.”

“This isn’t necessary, Barb-”

“You don’t get to call me that.”

“Barbara, it isn’t. We’re on the same team here.” Victor said almost pleading with her to let him walk away with those files.

“I doubt it.” She remarked deleting pictures. 

Victor shook his head. “Why, why do you hate me?”

“Hate is a very strong word, Mr. Sage.” She remarked her eyes focused on removing programs from his phone now. “I have a dislike for you.”

“A strong… dislike, what did I ever do to you?” He asked her honestly, because he felt like he hadn’t done anything wrong. Or maybe, as he thought about it- it wasn’t him, as much as the choice that Renee made and then he looked at Barbara in a different light. “She chose me, over you.”

“She hired you.” Barbara spat and then handed Victor one phone. “But that’s okay, that is-”

“No. No it’s not, I can see it in your eyes. You’re pissed with her, well don’t be. She did this to-” Victor overstepped his bounds.

Barbara shoved a finger into his chest and had no problem telling him what was up. “You don’t get to make that call, you don’t get to say she did this protect me.” Her words were hot, her eyes welled with tears anger, pain and guilt were all awash together. “You don’t-”

Victor just put his arms around her. “I’m sorry.”

“Why you? Why you and not me?”

“She loved us both, Barbara.” Victor said doing his best not to cry, because he was always taught that boys didn’t cry and Renee called bullshit and so since he was in her house… he could cry right? He could let his vulnerability slide in front of her goddaughter. “She took this punk kid off the street and taught him that he could do more with his life than waste it away into a bottle, and she loved you, raised you like her own kid. I was always jealous that you got that treatment, y'know?”

Barbara pushed herself away from Victor. “I’m sorry.” She said to him wiping her tears. “I-”

“Hey.” Victor said tucking his hand beneath Barbara’s chin as he lifted up her tear stained face, his blue eyes connecting with Barbara’s and in an instant the two gingers weren’t fighting and as Sara witnessed from the dining room, peering in through the crack in the door way. “I miss her too.” He told Barbara, and then he felt the young woman put her head against his chest.

Victor wasn’t accustomed to this, but he knew what to do. He placed his chin on top of her head and put his arms around Barbara’s body feeling her warmth. 

And as they pulled away from each other, Victor and Barbara’s hands held onto the other for a moment too long, she wiped his shaggy hair out of his eyes just to see his cobalt blue eyes while he got lost in her baby blues. 

Sara cleared her throat and knocked on the door way. “Foods ready, if you two want to eat.”

“I better go, actually.” Victor said as he rushed out of the bedroom and grabbed his hat. 

Barbara handed him the other phone and his usb drive. “Just call me if you find anything useful.” She said to Victor.

Victor nodded and took a box of files from the office and left the house in silence. Barbara shot a look toward Sara who pulled a zipper like motion across her lips.

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on tumblr @ misskorya.tumblr.com 
> 
> (This series is actually from my Tumblr)
> 
> ;)


End file.
